Farm Management and the Production Efficiency of Rice Farmers in the Western Highlands of Cameroon: Evidenced from a Tobit Analysis Approach

Abstract

The main objective of this study was to examine the effect of farm management on the production efficiency of rice farmers in the Western Highlands of Cameroon. Using a survey research design, data was collected from a sample frame of 260 farmers with the use of a questionnaire. Simple random sampling technique as well as snowball sampling technique was used to collect the needed data for this study where a TOBIT regression was used to analyse the data. Results from the analysis showed that planning exerts a negative significant (1%) effect on rice production efficiency. Contrary to planning, organizing, staffing, directing and control were all seen to exert a positive effect on rice production efficiency. However, organizing, staffing and control were all seen to be insignificant while directing was significant at the 1% level. Generally, the overall model was significant at 5% given that the p-value of overall significance was below 0.05. Thus, it can be concluded that farm management significantly affect rice production efficiency in the Western Highlands of Cameroon. Given these results, the study recommended that the government should partner with some higher institutions in the regions like the Universities of Bamenda and Dschang, given their different agricultural colleges, to help train farmers on rice management tactics. Also, based on the negative coefficients between planning and rice production efficiency, it was recommended that farmers, with help from the local meteorological station should look at the dictates of the weather for the current year before indulging in planting rice. This is to avoid misinterpretations of weather which can compromise efficiency.